Soma Cruz
Soma Cruz is a hero within the Castlevania series, and the Reincarnation of Mathias/Dracula/The Dark Lord. Backstory and RP role Soma Cruz is a Japanese student, born in 2017. He is childhood friends with Mina Hakuba, the Youngest of the Hakuba Shrine. However, it isn't that simple. In 2035, Soma and Mina go to watch The Solar Eclipse(The first of the century), going to watch it from the Hakuba Shrine. However, as it began, Soma and Mina blacked out. When they came to, they were in a strange castle's courtyard. A man named Genya Arikado, a government agent, appeared and explained where they were. They were inside Dracula's castle, which was sealed in the Eclipse in 1999. Soma doesn't believe Arikado's words at first, and before Arikado can prove this, monsters attack. Arikado eradicates most, but one gets to Soma and Mina, but is easily killed with a stab from Soma. However, when Soma kills the monster, its soul flies into Soma, surprising everyone. Arikado realises 'it' has awakened, an explains what that was. The Power of Dominance. The ability to control a monster's soul, and gain its abilities. He then tells Soma that the only way to escape is through the Throne Room, and without hesitation, Soma hurries so both He and Mina can escape. Along the way, Soma encounters a few more people. First, he encounters Graham Jones, a man who Soma later finds out believes he is the reincarnation of Dracula, after Dracula was defeated in 1999 and his castle sealed to stop him coming back. Next, he meets Yoko Belnades, the descendant of Sypha Belnades and a member of the church. She informs Soma of Graham believing that he is the reincarnation of Dracula, much to Soma's shock. She also not-so-subtlety calls Arikado by the name 'Alucard', which Soma doesn't notice. Next, he meets a man with amnesia, who tells him to call him 'J'. He came to the castle as he felt it was calling to him and would help him recover his memories. He also met a Soldier named Hammer, who was sent to the castle to investigate, but bailed on his mission to set up shop and make money. Soma works his way to the throne room, gaining many abilities and weapons overtime, and meets Graham there, who accuses him of theft as Soma controls the monster souls. Soma reluctantly fights and slays Graham, only for a surge of darkness to enter him, and he realises something. His power and Dracula's soul are one and the same. He is Dracula's reincarnation. Heeding Arikado's advice, he heads to the Chaos Realm to fight the core of Chaos, and the source of Dracula's power. On the way, J recovers his memories, finding out he is Julius Belmont, the Belmont who slew Dracula in 1999. He fights Soma, and neither win, as Julius held back, revealed after the fight, as Julius sensed the good still in Soma. He lets him go, but not without promising that if Soma fails and becomes Dracula, he will kill him. Soma heads into the Chaos Realm, and destroys Chaos, leaving the castle safely with Mina and everyone else. One year later, Soma and Mina are hanging out around town, when a woman named Celia Fortner teleports in, and attacks Soma with skeletons. Arikado appears, but Celia stops him with a barrier. Arikado passes Soma a weapon and Soma kills each of the monsters, absorbing their souls despite his belief that his power was gone. Celia escapes and Arikado explains that Celia is the leader of a cult aiming to bring 'The Dark Lord' back. As Soma refused this position in his first outing, Celia wished to kill him so the Dark Lord would resurrect anyway or the soul would join with a new host. Despite Arikado's warnings, Soma goes to Celia's castle to stop her. There, he meets up with all his old friends again. After a while, Soma encounters Celia, who reveals her plan to him. She has two Dark Lord candidates, both of whom were born in the same moment Dracula was slain in 1999, inheriting some of his powers. If one kills him, they become the next Dark Lord. Soma defeats Dimitri, the first of the two who can copy any magic attack used on him, and Dimitri seemingly dies(much to Soma's upset), becoming a soul that Soma has no choice but to absorb. When he defeats the other one, Dario, who uses fire, Celia takes him away. She powers him with a fire demon, which Soma is forced to go through a mirror(thanks to an earlier soul) to cut off its link with Dario. Dario leaves. but Celia has a backup plan. She leads Soma to a room, where she reveals a captured Mina. Before Soma can do anything, Celia kills her. Instantly, Soma's emotions get the better of him, and darkness flows through his body. However, thanks to a Talisman Mina sent earlier which has the power to repel darkness, Soma is able to hold it off until Arikado shows up and explains it was a cleverly disguised Doppelganger. Soma lets all the darkness out, and it flows into the fake Mina's body, along with Dimitri's soul, which revives him, now with the power of Dominance. Dimitri and Celia leave to get Dimitri more power. Soma heads to the abyss in the castle, Julius unable to help due to exhaustion from piercing the lock on the abyss entrance, and finds Dimitri sacrificing Celia for more power. However, he cant contain it, and the monsters fuse within him, eradicating him and creating the Giant monstrous Menace. Soma defeats it and leaves the castle, with Yoko actually teasing Soma about the idea of him and Mina being in a relationship. In the Chaos RP When brought into the Chaos RP world, Soma had just gone through his last adventure, leaving it fresh in his mind. Soma, after entering the ancient ruins, met Sonic The Hedgehog and Socket, forming an alliance formed, lovingly named out of the rp as 'Team S'. Soma, Sonic, and Socket met and teamed with Susie, and Eddie, and Sonic has teamed with Shantae after being separated in a flooded cavern while they were looking for Silver. Personality Soma as himself is serious, but friendly and cares for the people around him, all the while having a strong sense of duty and being particularly protective of Mina, his potential love interest in the same way that Dracula was fairly protective of his targets of affection. However in the un-canon scenarios that Soma becomes the Dark Lord, his malevolent nature is far more accentuated than Dracula's. Whereas Dracula treated his benefactors and supporters with respect and reward, Soma has little care for them, as he coldly killed Celia right after awakening. Much on the same way another difference is noticed, whereas Dracula was vengeful towards those that harmed his beloved ones, Soma had little care for Celia "killing" Mina, and merely killed her because he found her "annoying". When faced in battle he angrily recites the name of his challengers and then starts laughing maniacally as he teleports. Like Dracula, he is also in this mode fond of drinking blood out of a wine glass. Outside of the similarities to Dracula's personality, Soma is occasionally somewhat innocent and bashful, as demonstrated in his reactions to Yoko and Hammer's strong hintings that he and Mina are in a relationship Powers, Abilities, Weapons, and fighting style * Power of Dominance: An unexpected sequence of events in Dracula's Castle caused Soma's dormant powers to be awaken with Dracula's primary ability, the power to rule over defeated monsters and demon's souls and to project them in a variety of forms according to their potential. These souls, from lowest to greatest will obey Soma and will support, protect and even fight alongside Soma to defeat his enemies. Though Soma dislikes and even fears this power, he will have to rely on it to brave the aberrations of Dracula's castle and live to tell about it. These souls can be projected in four different forms portrayed by their colour; ** Red Bullet Souls: The offensive souls of the group, the Red Bullet souls are based on all out physical damage, elemental damage, status changing and sometimes a combination of most to crush enemy defenses. Bullet Souls essentially serve as Soma's version of the common "Sub-weapon" in the Castlevania series. These souls range from shooting rings of water, to lobbing grenades, to tossing out une seeds that grow into Unes. ** Blue Guardian Souls: The protective souls of the group, the Blue Guardian soul can enhance Soma's statistic potential, guards Soma from additional damage, transform Soma into them, or even fight alongside Soma for additional damage, at the cost of Mana. The Devil guardian soul, for example, causes all of Soma's stats to greatly rise, but it drains his health as long as it's active. ** Yellow Enchanted Souls: The supportive souls of the group, the Yellow Enchanted souls boosts Soma's status with no additional cost of Mana, though they may not boost Soma's status much, sometimes the help they give may be more than enough to decide between victory or failure in a fight. Some enchanted souls, such as the zombie soul in Aria of Sorrow, causes Soma to become far more powerful when he is afflicted by poison. A similar soul in Dawn of Sorrow, the Ghoul Soul, allows for Soma to eat spoiled or rotten foods, all of which would normally cause him to fall grievously ill, and restore his hp with it. ** Silver Ability Souls: The movement souls of the group, the Silver movement soul allows Soma to enhance his movement, such as a high jump, a double jump, underwater travel and breaking certain blocks. ** Soul Combo: Some Bullet and Guardian souls resonate with one another and they can allow Soma to cast Bullet Souls for free when the Guardian Soul is activated. * Arms Mastery: Soma, though at 19, has mastered a variety of arms such as basic swords, spears, axe, melee punches and hammers as well as the first one to wield firearms ranging from handguns to heavy weapons. Some of the weapons can be upgraded to have divine properties. * Arms Critical Attack: Soma can project his Mana through his weapon and gives the weapons special property of damage, such as speed, strength, length or distance and in some cases even releasing a weapons hidden powers such as the Gungner's ability to shoot a powerful lightning bolt in a similar fashion to the Item Crush ability that Vampire hunters are capable of using with their sub-weapons. * Magic Seals: Soma mastered Magic Seals, used to counter demons that regenerate their lives through the Portal of Darkness. The Gates of Darkness cannot function without the seals, like a cover to a hole. However, complicated seals can be created to ensure the caster have difficult time sealing the Gate within the given time. Soma has mastered up to level five seals within the time he invaded Celia's castle. In an alternate ending it is shown that magic seals can also be used as a form of binding spell which allowed Soma to seal Dario's Dark lord powers Soma fights with a variety of weapons, including swords, spears, and axes. Many of his weapons are references to mythology and folklore, such as the Valmanway, Longinus, Excalibur, or Claimh Solais (even Death's Scythe). The whip sword is a reference to the Castlevania series' tradition of whips as primary weapons, but is the only weapon in Aria of Sorrow that resembles a whip. Soma can also use handguns, a Rocket Propelled Grenade, and a Positron Rifle, in an interesting (and futuristic) departure from other games in the Castlevania series. It has also been implied Soma can use Soul Steal, a move Alucard has been known to use. Relationships Mina Hakuba: Mina Hakuba is the childhood friend of Soma Cruz, and it has been strongly implied that she and Soma like each other in the romantic sense instead of friends, even when they say otherwise. Genya Arikado: Genya Arikado, aka Alucard, acts like a mentor to Soma, telling him everything he needs to know in both adventures. This could be because Alucard wants his father, who Soma is the reincarnation, to be able to rest his soul. Julius Belmont: Julius is likely to be Soma's strongest ally, and he and Soma have a mutual friendship. The promise Soma made Julius be part of, where if he were to become the Dark Lord Julius was to kill him, is testament to the tension between them. Yoko Belnades: Yoko is one of Soma's most helpful allies, and if it were not for her, he may have not learned of Graham's intentions until it was too late. He is annoyed at her for the moment, due to her teasing at the end of Soma's second adventure. Hammer: Hammer is one of Soma's normal friends, who he helped leave the army safely and be able to set up shop. They occasionally share banter over Yoko, Soma(and everyone in the group)recognising that Hammer loves Yoko, even if the feelings are not returned. Graham Jones: After learning of his true intentions, Soma just wished to be away from Graham and the castle for as long as Graham had time left on the planet, and Graham hated Soma for 'stealing' the monsters. Soma ended up killing him. Celia Fortner: Soma and Celia clearly showed hatred towards each other for all the time Celia was alive during Soma's second adventure. Soma hated her for putting him and Mina in danger when trying to resurrect the Dark Lord, and Celia hated Soma for not becoming the Dark Lord. Dimitri: Soma shows annoyance towards Dimitri, and Dimitri shows Hatred towards Soma. Dario: Soma shows annoyance towards Dario, and Dario shows amused hatred towards Soma. Sonic: ally. Had a boast war when fighting a bunch of skeletons once. Socket: ally. Susie: Ally. Fought when first met. Eddie: Ally. Trivia * The name Soma means body in Greek, which may refer to the fact that he can be considered as a receptacle for the souls he absorbs, and thus justify the fact that he holds the power of dominance. His last name is somewhat of a pun, Cruz is the Spanish and Portuguese word for Cross, which is commonly used against vampires in fiction. ** His japanese name is Kurusu Sōma (来須蒼真); Sōma is his given name. The kanji that compose his name mean, in order : *** 'come/next' (kuru) *** 'by all means' (su) *** 'pale/blue' (sō) *** 'truth/reality' (ma) ** Taken together, the name hints that he is the true inheritor of Dracula's power, and will definitely receive them. Interestingly, the kanji for pale is also used as a euphemism for being inexperienced or unripe. Thus, probably in Aria of Sorrow, Soma has not yet reached his full potential. * By 2035, Soma Cruz is living at Hakuba-chō, a town on the Nagano prefecture in Japan. * In Nintendo Power's pre-release coverage for Dawn of Sorrow, it mistakenly referred to Soma as "Sora Cruz". Category:Characters Category:Superhuman Physical Characteristics Category:Weapon Mastery Category:Flight Category:Soul Manipulation Category:Energy Manipulation Category:Statistics Modification Category:Elemental Manipulation